as rated by NattyShedGirl
It was all the way back in 2018 when I first wrote Garden Sheds Stirling. It’s definitely due a 2025 update.
It was a simpler time. TikTok was what your analogue watch did, and you used Facebook to keep up with your actual pals, not to be bombarded with twenty million ads for things you don’t want or need.
Things have also changed for Stirling shed manufacturers. The 2018 blog used the simple search term, “garden sheds Stirling” and evaluated the best manufacturers who appeared in those search results.
But 2025 Googling isn’t the same as 2018 Googling was at all. First of all, you have to wade through all the sponsored image posts. Most of these are for online suppliers who mass-produce crappy timber buildings. They’re followed by 2-5 sponsored results, which look like real results but are actually at the top of the page because of advertising spend. These might be local companies or they might be more of the mass-produced crappy sheds.
The point is, that it’s harder than ever to find local manufacturers online. So once again I’m out here wading through the good, the bad and the ugly so you don’t have to.
The Rules
In order to make this fair, we have to set a standard. The search is the same every time for every area. “garden sheds Stirling” was our Google search term for this blog and it has given us our three shed manufacturers in Stirling to review.
We’re sticking with your chosen locality because if you’re in Stirling, you should be able to buy a shed from a manufacturer in Stirling. Here’s how it goes:
- We don’t talk about ourselves! Nope! This is not a sly skanky ad for Gillies & Mackay. We are not in this review. This is purely for research purposes and I take a clear, impartial view of all companies I review.
- We only talk about 8’ x 6’s in our comparisons, it makes things easier.
- The opinions in this blog are based on my own personal and professional judgement and what I believe is important when it comes to the perfect shed: specification, price and service.
Let’s see what 2025 Google has to say. Our top three search results for Stirling-based companies who manufacture their own sheds are:
Paterson Garden Buildings
We’ve to stretch our definition a little to include Paterson Garden Buildings in this review – technically they’re in South Alloa rather than Stirling proper. However, they certainly manufacture their own buildings, well, the sheds anyway. Given that Stirling has pretty slim pickings when it comes to shed companies I thought we could extend the range a wee bit.
The Paterson Garden Buildings website has had a huge overhaul since 2018, BUT..! For all the bonny pictures, cartoon icons and fancy menus, we’re still missing something vital.
Specification
The first thing I LOVE about Paterson is that they don’t buy in; they are not a wholesaler. They make all their timber sheds themselves. And to top it off, they use a very similar construction close to my heart.
Gary specifies that he uses a 19mm thick tongue and groove Scandinavian Pine for the cladding of his sheds. This is always an absolute WIN in my book. The new website contains specification details that were conspicuously absent before, which is great to see.
Paterson Garden Buildings use 19mm Scandinavian redwood cladding, 19mm whitewood roofing boards and roofing felt. The 50mm x 50mm framing is decent, but there are a few slightly irrelevant details.
The specification states that panels are hand-nailed to stop water ingress. First off, while hand-nailing is necessary for buildings with thinner cladding that’s prone to splitting, in solid 19mm redwood it’s not an issue. Secondly, all single-skinned buildings experience some degree of water ingress, regardless of how they’re nailed together.
And just like in my Fife review post, there’s mention of additional height, but absolutely no indication of what it’s additional to. If you consider a two-foot-tall shed to be standard, then the additional height isn’t a particularly useful feature.
Unfortunately – I’m forever guessing with Paterson Garden Buildings and it really is my only complaint as everything else appears to be spot on. Even their customer reviews are great – they have a 4.7-star rating on Google based on 80 reviews.
Price
But just like in 2018, Gary doesn’t believe in publishing his prices.
Gary believes it’s best for you, the customer, to call him should you want to discuss the cost of his buildings, the design or the specification. In fact, I once organised an undercover MISSION and had a friend message Gary to ask for a price list, which he refused to send. He said I had to tell him what I wanted first, then he’d tell me how much it would cost.
This really gets my fascia boards rattlin’! WHY?
Because it’s not about you, Gary! It’s about us, your customers, the people who want to buy from you but are put off by your no-pricing policy.
Given my position, I have been ‘exposed’ to Paterson Garden Buildings prices before. Because guess what? It’s not a secret. And based on that I can assume that Paterson Garden Buildings are charging a premium price for a premium product.
Why do customers need prices?
But I also have no idea if the same price he charges one person is the same as he charges someone else for the same job. Maybe he just waits until he meets you and judges you on your haircut. Perhaps he consults an astrologist to determine the most auspicious price to charge. There could be a secret password that unlocks a 75% discount. Who knows?
Maybe he doesn’t want to have to update his website? In that case, I see no harm for Paterson Garden Buildings or for the customer if Gary were to simply give a description and the price at the time on the building photographs he uploads to Facebook. This keeps the price specific to the pictured job only, so Gary doesn’t get scared that someone might make him sell them a shed. It also helps the customer understand what kind of price range Paterson Garden Buildings has. The website could simply say, “For indicative pricing, check our Facebook page.” It’s a win-win.
Or, you know, just put your prices on your website and stop making your customers work hard for no reason.
Service
While the website states that prices include delivery and installation subject to distance, this would be far more helpful if we knew what the prices and distances involved are. It’s hard to know what you’re paying for when you don’t know what you’re paying.
There’s also a reference made to aftercare, but no details on what’s involved beyond advice to paint the building every 2-3 years. There’s no point in including phrases like “Your shed should stand the test of time, so we’ll help you look after it for many years to come,” if you don’t also explain WHY the shed will stand the test of time and HOW you’ll help to look after it.
Paterson Garden Buildings are building solid sheds, but the lack of clarity on their website is as frustrating as a shed with no roof.
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Hillhead Joiners
Incorporated in 2023, Hillhead are new kids on the shed block. As their name suggests, they offer a range of joinery-based services, including garden sheds.
Specification
Och, I had such high hopes. But alas! Here are some of the things I COULDN’T find out about Hillhead Joiners’ sheds:
Whether or not Hillhead manufactures sheds or buys them from a supplier and installs them.
As joiners, it seems reasonable that Hillhead can build garden sheds. They claim they “can make a bespoke one to fit any corner of the garden you have.” However, the photos on their website show a generic apex shed that’s available to buy from online retailer Dunster House and a larger building with four glazed doors that’s available from Atkinson’s Fencing, who interestingly also describe their product as “bespoke buildings.”
Am I missing something? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, bespoke means “specifically of goods; ordered to be made, as distinguished from ready-made.”
If you buy your buildings from a supplier they are not bespoke, even if the most qualified joiner in the universe installs them.
Hillhead’s website states that you can have anything you want: “wood, plastic, or metal and whether you need a secure storage shed, space-saving corner shed or a workshop with integrated log storage” While it’s great that Hillhead wants to please absolutely everybody all the time no matter what they want, this is a pretty clear indicator that they are just supplying generic sheds. Hillhead aren’t experts in any particular type of shed or even sheds at all; they just want you to love them.
What they’re made of.
Since I can’t even find out who’s building the sheds, I certainly can’t tell you how they’re made. Hard pass.
What sizes are available.
“to fit any corner of the garden you have” sounds really accommodating, but if you’re planning a garden project someone at some point is going to have to get a tape measure out.
Price
You’re having an absolute laugh if you think there are shed prices on this website. There are no prices for any of the services listed, and a search for prices turns up a variety of blog posts. These all say “call us for prices.”
Louder now, for the folk at the back: websites exist so people can find things out without having to pick up the phone. Generally speaking, people want to know how much the thing they’re shopping for costs. They don’t want to have to do your job for you.
Service
Pffft! No chance. The best I can do here is tell you that “Hillhead Joiners Stirling is 100% customer-focused and provides what we feel is an unrivalled customer satisfaction guarantee.”
Are there any details of this guarantee anywhere else on their website? Of course not. None of these words mean anything real.
Very clearly Hillhead Joiners are a firm that takes on a variety of joinery-based projects, and someone has asked them once or twice about sheds. While their expertise in fitted kitchens, decking, and all the other services they offer may well be excellent, I wouldn’t describe Hillhead as a shed company. Perhaps they turn out beautiful, long-lasting buildings, but there’s absolutely nothing on their website that supports this suggestion.
What annoys me most here is that this is a good-looking website that’s well-designed and written with care and attention. This isn’t a basic one-page website that exists purely to tick a box, but it may as well be for all the useful information it provides. Hillhead could have spent their time and attention creating something that’s actually useful to their customers.
But instead, most of the content on here either makes vague statements with no evidence, or it’s a way to shoehorn in the name of a location that Hillhead covers. There are about twenty blog posts called Joiners Balfron, Joiners Bridge of Allan, Joiners Buchlyvie, Joiners Callander, Joiners Causewayhead Stirling, Joiners Doune Perthshire, Joiners Dunblane etc.
In the world of digital marketing, we call this “keyword stuffing” or “cheating.” It’s a lazy and misleading tactic intended to trick Google into ranking your website higher on its results page. Once again, this information is not there to help customers. It’s there to help Hillhead Joiners. I’m not impressed.
Stirling Sheds
With neither a website nor a business profile, you can thank Facebook for the fact that I was even able to find a top three. Stirling Sheds “build bespoke garden sheds, garages, kids playhouses, summer houses, outdoor animal housing and other outdoor storage.”
They’re based in Bonnybridge, which almost puts them into our Garden Sheds Falkirk post’s territory, but help me out here – I’m struggling!
Specification
Because I’m looking at Facebook posts, there’s very little consistent information I can give about the specifications used for sheds. In general, buildings seem to be made from 19mm loglap cladding or 16mm weatherboard, with 19mm flooring. There’s no information about the type of timber that’s used. There’s a playhouse that uses C16-graded framing and buildings seem to use roofing felt as standard.
Depending on the type of timber used, this could be a decent mid to lower-range specification. However, we’re once again missing something vital to help us make this decision.
Price
Yep, you guessed it. While Stirling Sheds get a huge thumbs-up from me for building their own sheds, it’s impossible to tell you about the value of the buildings because I don’t know how much they cost, and neither do you. Just like with Paterson Garden Buildings, shed prices seem to be shrouded in secrecy.
Strangely enough, several comments ask about prices, but apart from one pricing a dog kennel, there are no replies given. Are Stirling Sheds sliding into the DMs like a sleazy pick-up merchant, or do these questions just remain unanswered?
Above all, why are shed makers so terrified of putting their prices out there?
Service
There are only two reviews on the Stirling Sheds Facebook page, and one is simply a recommendation without any additional information. There’s a glowing review from a summerhouse customer but apart from this, I’m just as lost as everyone else.
I have no idea if prices include delivery and installation, or whether groundwork is available through the company. I don’t know if there’s a guarantee or what happens if you’re unhappy with your shed. Quite frankly, I’ve already spent ages looking through this Facebook profile. I’m tired of it and getting annoyed that there’s no useful information.
It’s a good job I’m not a Stirling-based shed customer, or I’d have lost interest long before now.
UPDATE: I was so excited to find a third Stirling-based shed manufacturer that I didn’t notice that the last posts on this page are from 2016. It’s highly likely that Stirling Sheds are no longer in business. Take note, shed-builders – it’s hard to run a business when you don’t tell people how much your products cost.
Garden Sheds Stirling: Top 3
Good people of Stirling, you deserve better. You deserve to know how much a garden shed costs when you buy it from a local manufacturer. You also deserve to know what you’re getting when you buy a shed because otherwise you might be left with a waterlogged lemon of a building. Without clear information before you buy, it’s all too easy for you to get Bannockburned.
This is 2025. You shouldn’t have to pick up the phone to find out basic information like prices and specifications. Trying to find a good shed in Stirling has been an absolute slog.
And shedmakers of Stirling, you’re missing out on business because your websites clearly say to your potential customers that they have to work hard for their garden building. If you meet them in the middle you’re saving everyone’s time and energy. How many times a day do you take a phone call from someone who isn’t a good fit for your business, but who doesn’t know that until they phone you?
Every time you answer your phone to someone who is outside your delivery area, or who doesn’t have the budget for your buildings, or who’s enquiring about a product that you don’t sell, you’re wasting your time and theirs. All you have to do to avoid that situation is to put that necessary information on your website.
Then you can save all that time for making superb sheds, or taking a wee half day, or collecting tropical fish, or whatever you fancy doing with your extra time.
Who do we recommend?
Paterson Garden Buildings have the best specifications of the three we’ve reviewed today, but also I have absolutely no idea what they cost. I wouldn’t recommend them to anybody without this information, because I can’t tell you what value they represent.
Even though seven whole years have passed, Stirling natives still can’t get online and make an informed buying decision about the garden shed that’s right for them from a local company. Let’s see how long it takes to get things in order…
Peace and Shed Love
NattyShedGirl x
